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N0. 6H,242. Patented Sept. 27,1898. J. L. F0 T BOTTLE pplication fll 18, 1895.

(N0 Model.)

Whats 565: Iwmepzaw 9%? {76582773 L. Folle heis Nrrn n STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOSEPH L. FOLLETT, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

BOTTLE-SEAL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No, 61 1,242, dated. September 27, 1898.

Application filed March 18, 1895- Serial No. 542,084. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, J osEPH L. FoLLETr, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Bottle-Seals, of which the following is a specification.

Under my invention the meeting faces of the neck of the bottle or other receptacle and in so doing will enter and occupy a part of both grooves, thus effectually sealing the bottle and preventing access to its contents except by breaking the seal.

The preferred embodiment of my invention is represented in the accompanying drawings, in which ,7

Figure 1 is a vertical central section of the upper part of a sealed bottle. Fig. 2 is a horizontal section on line 2 2, Fig. 1.

A is the bottle cap or seal proper, which fits over and down around the neck of the bottle. It is made of any suitable material preferably glass, pottery, or clay-which is brittle and easily broken.

By the words cap or seal, as hereinafter used, I" intend and mean a cap or seal which possesses the foregoing specified characteristics. V

The neck of the bottle is shown at B.

In the meeting faces of the cap and the neck are formed recesses (a and b, respectively) which when the cap is in place on the neck match or register. The spring-acting looking device is to be contained in these recesses. The recesses in this instance have the form of continuous annular grooves, made the one in the inner face of the cap and the other in the outer face of the neck, and the spring looking or retaining device in this instance is a corrugated annulus or ring 0, of springtempered wire, of such size and form that This spring tle.

when placed in either groove it or portions of it will project beyond the groove in position to enter and lie in the other groove also. The ends of the spring-annulus are preferably unattached to each other, so as to permit the ring to expand and contract. The spring usually is first fitted into the groove ct in the cap A. In this position a portion of it, represented by its inwardly -extending corrugations, will project beyond the groove a into the interior of the cap. If now the cap be pressed down upon the neck of the bottle, the spring will yield and expand to permit the cap to be forced down into place until the groove a comes opposite to and registers with the groove 5 in the neck of the bot- As soon as this takes place the spring is released and will at once contract around the neck of the bottle, and from its corrugated form will occupy a portion of both grooves. It is then impossible to open the bottle without breaking the seal, inasmuch as the spring which looks the two together is housed and surrounded on all sides by glass or other substance of which the cap and the bottle-neck are respectively made.

'- The walls of the cap may be made thinner at the groove a than elsewhere, so that when the cap is struck it will crack and break ofi at that point, or for the same purpose the cap may be made thinner along any desired'line or lines, "so that when struck it will break along the said line or lines.

The seal may be used not only on bottles, but on cans, jars, and other receptacles.

The characteristic of my invention is that I provide a seal in which an automaticallyoperating spring detent or look is so arranged as to occupy a portion of two recesses in the meeting faces of the bottle or other package and the seal or cap respectively, whereby when the two are once fitted together they cannot afterward be separated without breaking the seal.

I have described what I believe to be the best way of carrying the invention into effect; but I do not wish to be understood as limiting-myself strictly to the particular details of construction hereinbefore set forth and illustrated.

What I claim as new and of my own inven-- tion is as follows:

1. A bottle combined with a frangible cap or capsule, having an internal spring device adapting the cap or capsule to be forced over the outer end of the neck of the bottle and to be retained by the engagement of the spring device under a shoulder on said outer end.

2. The combination with the neck of the bottle or other package and the seal or cap thereon, the two provided 011 their meeting faces with matching recesses, of an automatically-operating spring-yielding lock or detent located in and projecting from the re cess in the one, and adapted to also enter the recess on the other, when the two parts are fitted together with their recesses in register substantially as and for the purposes hereinbefore set forth.

3. The cap or seal proper and the bottleneck provided on their meeting faces with matching annular grooves, in combination with an antomatically-operatin g sprin g-yielding detent contained in the one groove and adapted to project partly therefrom into the other groove when the cap is fitted to the neck, as set forth.

4. The corrugated spring-annulus, in combination with the cap or seal proper and the bottle-neck provided on their meeting faces with matching annular grooves, substantially as and for the purposes hereinbefore set forth.

5. A bottle combined with a frangible cap or capsule, having an internal spring device adapting the cap or capsule to be forced over the outer end of the neck of the bottle and to be retained by the engagement of the spring device under a shoulder on said outer end, substantially as and for the purposes hereinbefore set forth.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 16th day of March, 1895.

JOSEPH L. FOLLETT.

WVitnesses:

D. F. POND, WM. V. HILLIARD. 

